County spokesman Patrick Lacefield said Tuesday that Parsons Brinckerhoff, which has an office in Baltimore, was the original engineer for the project and has agreed to cooperate with the county and design the project’s remediation work.

The Silver Spring Transit Center — a $112 million transit hub project on the corner of Colesville Road and Wayne Avenue in downtown Silver Spring — was expected to open in 2011. A series of cracks found in the structure and disparities in the thickness of the concrete at the center have delayed the project’s opening by nearly two years so far and it’s unclear when the center will be open for business.

The county hired Washington, D.C.-based KCE Structural Engineers to prepare a report detailing the problems and potential solutions at the center. The report by KCE, released to the public March 19, revealed the Silver Spring Transit Center contains “serious design and construction defects” that compromise the center’s structural integrity, longevity and safety.

Parsons Brinckerhoff Vice President Jerry Jannetti confirmed his firm’s intent to continue working with the county on the project, saying it released a statement March 27 that “Parsons Brinckerhoff is the engineer of record and it is our intent to be the engineer of record in the future.”

Having the firm on board helps Montgomery’s timing for completing the project, Lacefield said.

David Dise, director of the county’s Department of General Services, said there will not be a new contract with Parsons Brinckerhoff and that by agreeing to proceed, they will be held to a very tight timeline.

Dise said the county aims to continue construction on the transit center this summer.

If the firm had not agreed to do the design work for the remediation, Lacefield said the county would have been forced to find a different firm and it would have only contributed to the project’s timing woes.